The students in the Los Angeles Unified School District deserve better.
At the direction of the school board, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho recently presented new rules preventing charter schools “from being sited in campuses that have been identified as serving vulnerable students,” according to LA School Report. Affected are 11,000 students learning at “50 charter schools co-located in 52 LAUSD school campuses.”
Practically, it means 350 of the district’s 770 buildings, nearly half, would be off limits to these innovative schools. Contrary to the frequent lie from United Teachers Los Angeles that charters aren’t, these schools are public schools, too.
The direction of the district is a tragedy. LAUSD was once one of the most friendly in the state toward charters. But thanks to massive spending by the United Teachers of Los Angeles, an anti-charter majority has been installed hellbent on dismantling school choice.
“If they were putting the needs of the children first, they would allow charter schools, which have historically proven to be higher performing than regular public schools,” argues Lance Izumi, the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute.
He notes that LAUSD students especially were hurt during the COVID lockdowns. Post-COVID, the percentage of students meeting Smarter Balanced Assessments standards for math fell from an already low 33.5% to 28.5% from the 2018-19 school year to the 2021-22 school year.
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According to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Jan. 10 budget proposal for fiscal year 2024-25, which begins on July 1, average state spending per pupil clocks at $23,519, or $705,570 for a class of 30. The money is there for excellence. What’s needed is giving parents more school choice — more charters and full access to the facilities parents, and all taxpayers, paid for.
What’s instead happening is that with every passing year LAUSD is becoming a slush fund for unions to pillage, while LAUSD students are left behind.
The LAUSD board needs to reverse this retrograde policy. And this March, voters need to put back in place a board majority that isn’t so beholden to UTLA and can put students first.